Scientists Develop Bulletproof Skin Using Goat Milk Spider Silk

We know this sounds insane, but Dutch researchers working with the Forensic Genomics Consortium in the Netherlands claim to have just created bulletproof skin from goat milk. The researchers report that they genetically modified a goat to produce milk rich in the same protein that makes silk spiders’ fibers so strong. Apparently, the researchers’ plan is to eventually introduce this protein into the human genome so that we can all be bulletproof. Don’t worry, we are fully on board with your confusion. There’s a photo of the “skin” after the jump. Note: We aren’t making this up.

Apparently this is a photo of a material that could turn us all into bulletproof super heros — seems a little fuzzy to be so strong, no? After genetically modifying the goat in question, researchers milked the animal and wove the resulting liquid into a fiber that is ten times stronger than steel. The researchers then grew a layer of human skin around the goat milk weave, hoping the skin would blend into the bulletproof fiber. The photo above shows the finished goat milk skin graft.

The researchers then shot a .22 calibre long rifle bullet into the skin and lo and behold – their experiment worked! “Imagine replacing keratin, the protein responsible for the toughness of the human skin, with this spider silk protein. This is possible by adding the silk producing genes of a spider to the gnome of a human: creating a bulletproof human,” notes Jalila Essaidi in the researchers youtube video. “Science-fiction? Maybe, but we can get a feeling of what this transhumanistic idea would be like by letting a bulletproof matrix of spider silk merge with an in vitro human skin.”